6 NFL teams that won’t return to the playoffs in 2022

It’s never too early to make bold and potentially foolish NFL playoff predictions. Which teams made it in 2021 that will miss out in 2022?

Parity reigns supreme in the NFL, always. There is always going to be a ton of turnover and change year to year, including which teams do and don’t make the playoffs.

During the 2021 NFL season, seven teams made the playoffs that didn’t make it the year before. That’s half of the entire NFL playoff pool these days, so it stands to reason that we could see similar turnover in 2022.

Which teams made the playoffs in 2021 that will miss out in the 2022 season?

Let’s look at six candidates.

NFL team not returning to the playoffs in 2022: Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers made the 2021 playoffs with a lot of luck as it is. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, right?

The Steelers almost always find their way to the postseason because they have one of the best coaches in the entire league, if not the best coach in the league right now in Mike Tomlin.

Tomlin’s Steelers backed into the playoffs last year and got absolutely mauled by the Kansas City Chiefs in the Wild Card round, and I think this is the year we see them miss out.

Barring a dominant performance all season from the Steelers’ defense, it’s hard to see a team led by Kenny Pickett or Mitchell Trubisky being one of the seven best in the AFC.

The same could have been said last year about the Mac Jones-led New England Patriots, who found a way into the playoffs, but I don’t know if that lightning is going to strike in the same place in consecutive years.

It’s going to be brutal to make the playoffs in the AFC this year and I think the Steelers miss out.